The resulting explosions
and reactor meltdowns
at the plant
released large amounts
of radioactive material
into the atmosphere,
surrounding land
and the Pacific Ocean,
raising grave concerns
about the short and
long-term health effects
from the nuclear disaster.
According to the Union
of Concerned Scientists,
a US-based science
advocacy organization,
the radioactive isotopes
which pose the largest
cancer causing risk
following
a nuclear power accident
are iodine-131
and cesium-137.

On today’s program
we present an interview
with American author,
independent researcher
and lecturer
on radiation safety
Mr. Paul Zimmerman,
who will discuss
some of the very serious
health concerns
related to this
power generation method.
He is the author
of “A Primer
in the Art of Deception,”
a book about the dangers of
depleted uranium weapons
and human exposure
to nuclear radiation.

Nuclear plants use fission
to produce power
from highly concentrated
forms of uranium
or plutonium fuel.
Under normal
circumstances, the fuel
and fission by-products
from a generating station
are contained within
a support structure
called the core.
But if the core
becomes damaged,
massive amounts
of radioactive material
may be released
into the atmosphere
or leak into the ground.

What happens
with nuclear power
is that human beings
concentrate
radioactive material;
they bring it
out of the Earth,
they put it together
in a concentrated form
which doesn’t exist
in nature.
Or they run it
through nuclear reactors
and create a tremendous
amount of waste.

And it’s because of
this concentrated material
it has to be isolated
from life, and anytime
that it escapes
its confinement and
comes in contact with life
there’s biological hazard,
whether it’s animal life,
plant life, or human life.
And so the technology’s
only effective
if it can be contained.
And we see
enough examples
where containment fails
and then people suffer.

Volumes of research
clearly demonstrate
that contact with
radioactive material
can cause
severe health conditions.
The government of Japan
has imposed a 20-kilometer
“no-go” zone around
the Fukushima plant
to protect citizens from
radioactive contamination.
This means
no one is allowed
to live in the zone
and people cannot
enter this area unless they
have special permission.

There’s no doubt
that fission products
have been released
into the environment.
Fission products are a
result of nuclear reactions.
And it’s either from
the reactors themselves
or from
the waste-storage ponds
of the used reactor fuel.
But if fission products
are being released,
you’ve got
a very hazardous situation.
And particularly
the inhalation
of that material
creates a threat to health,
even in low doses.

But there’s
a lot of information
from a similar accident
from Chernobyl
that very low doses
created illness
in the population,
particularly childhood
leukemia in children that
were still in the wombs
of their mothers
developing when
the mothers were exposed
to this kind of radiation.
Or there were
high incidence
of infant birth defects.
There’s a tremendous
amount of study
that was carried out
in Russia and the Ukraine
that testifies to this.

What happens
when radioactive materials
enter the food supply?

One of
the most important things
often not recognized is
that the human body
is an accumulator
of radioactivity
from the environment.
So they might pick up
a little from this vegetable
and a little
from this water,
and from the milk that
has entered the food chain
through animals eating
contaminated feed.
And it’s all being
concentrated in our bodies.
And so the dose
that a human being
ends up accumulating
might be very significant.

As Mr. Zimmerman
explains,
one of the challenges
in determining the
health effects of exposure
to nuclear materials is that
they may not be evident
until decades after contact.

Some of the workers
that have responded to
the (Fukushima) accident,
trying to keep
the reactor, the waste,
the used fuel rods
covered with water,
they are taking a very high
radiation exposure.
And those people
might suffer
acute radiation syndrome
and feel it very quickly.
In terms of
longer term pathology,
we're not going to know
for a long time
how many people
are going to develop
thyroid difficulties
because of the absorption
of iodine-131
into their bodies,
or more long-term
in terms of cancer rates.

So this is one of
the insidious problems
with nuclear energy,
because of the way
radiation affects
the human body
in non-deterministic ways.
It takes years or decades
to get a picture
of the health problem.
And by that time,
the world has moved on.
And they don't take it
quite as seriously
as they would
if they could evaluate
the hazard right now.

In 1986,
in what is considered
the worst disaster
in nuclear power
generation history,
a plant in Chernobyl,
Ukraine exploded,
causing huge amounts
of radioactive material
to be released
into the atmosphere,
contaminating humans
and animals, agricultural
products and soil
in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine
and most of Europe.
A recent study suggests
that Chernobyl’s overall
impact on human health
was much, much more
severe than
is commonly understood.

There was a book
recently published
in New York (USA)
by the Academy of Sciences.
And in that book,
"Chernobyl:
Consequences to People
and the Environment,"
they said that
between 1986 and 2004,
985,000 people died
as a result of Chernobyl.
They did deep research,
and consulted 5,000
sources while they were
preparing their report.

The Chernobyl disaster
prompted
many research studies
on its health consequences.
Scientists have concluded
that, among
other deleterious effects,
exposure to radiation
is linked to increases
in thyroid cancer,
severe mental retardation
in newborns and
genetic damage in humans,
animals, and plant life.

A tremendous amount
of research
has come to light
since Chernobyl.
And it’s proven
that the risk factors
that are published
by the radiation
protection agencies
are inadequate.
They do not
accurately represent
the health detriment
that’s produced
in a population that’s
exposed to radiation.

The fuel
used in nuclear plants
is also an extreme threat
to human health.

There’s a tremendous
amount of research
that’s been done on
the toxicology of uranium.
How hazardous is it?
And how does it
affect the human body
and how does it
affect the cells?
And things that were
never known before
are coming to light
in terms of the radiation
emitted from uranium.
And, research has shown
that uranium is genotoxic.

It’s toxic to DNA.
It is mutagenic.
It causes mutations
in DNA. It’s cytotoxic.
It causes
adverse functioning
in cells. It’s teratogenic.
It has the capacity
of affecting
fetal development.
And it’s also a neurotoxin.
So anybody that
brushes aside uranium
saying, “Ah,
it can’t be hazardous,”
is not keeping up
with the modern research.

Even living in the vicinity
of a nuclear power plant
can affect one’s health.
Research by
the German Federal Office
for Radiation Protection
shows that children living
within five kilometers of
nuclear-generating stations
are more than twice
as likely to get leukemia
as those living farther away.
And Mr. Zimmerman
has another concern
about nuclear plants;
the spent fuel
remains toxic
and highly dangerous for
extremely long periods.

Iodine-131,
which is escaping from
the reactors in Japan,
the half-life
of that radioisotope is
approximately eight days.
And they say generally
that if you count
10 generations
of radioactive decay,
it decays to harmless levels.
So for radioactive iodine,
after 80 days it will
no longer be hazardous.

But now if you take
something like plutonium,
plutonium has a half-life
of 24,000 years.
So if you're waiting for it
to decay
for over 10 generations,
you're talking about
240,000 years
that it has to be isolated
from life in order to
be completely safe.
And now the major fuel
in a nuclear reactor
is uranium- 238.
And that has a half-life
of four and a half
billion years.
And so you’re going
to have to wait
45 billion years
before the uranium
is totally harmless.

Given the spent fuels
remain
a gigantic bio-hazard
for a length of time that is
beyond comprehension,
how do we keep
not only ourselves,
but those that will live
on Earth long after us
safe from these substances?

Then the question also
becomes the disposal
of radioactive waste.
And I think
it's a bit of a folly to believe
that human beings can
think thousands of years
into the future,
that they know
what's going to happen
in such a way
that they can keep
that radioactive waste
from escaping
into the water, escaping
into the environment,
and affecting generations
of people that
we can't even imagine yet.
So we create
all this waste and we have
very imperfect ways
of anticipating what's
going to happen to it.
But it's going to be lethal
to all living creatures
wherever it escapes.

The byproducts from
nuclear power generation
jeopardize
not only our own lives,
but also those of our
animal co-inhabitants.

Once again, the question
has to be asked,
“Do human beings have
the authority or the right
to release dangerous,
radioactive material
into the environment
that we share with
all other creatures?
Though human beings
might be protected
from radiation that’s
washed into the ocean,
what about the fish?
Are we stewards
of the Earth,
protecting the Earth?
Or is the garbage that
we release into the world
affecting life in ways that
we don’t even think about?

We're poisoning
our common planet
and poisoning
our fellow human beings.
And we're destroying
values and cultures
in the belief that our way,
our technological way
is the way of the future.

What is the solution
to the life-threatening
problems that are caused
by nuclear-power plants?
Immediately switching
to safer, greener sources
of energy is the only option.

We have to find
a sustainable way of living
and more appropriate
technology.
I’m very curious to see
what’s going to happen
in Japan after this event.
Choices have to be made
about lifestyle,
what kind of lifestyle
do you want to live?
And is it worth
having energy production
that can do what is
happening now in Japan.
Is it worth that to continue?
So maybe the Japanese
can be the conscience
of the whole world, because
they’re now having
more intimate experience
with what it means
to be contaminated.

Many thanks to you,
Paul Zimmerman,
for your diligent research,
and providing the public
with a clearer understanding
of the highly hazardous
health effects
of nuclear power.
May your important work
continue to help
shift our world to
sustainable power sources
that are in harmony
with planet Earth.

For more information
on Paul Zimmerman
and his book,
“The Primer
in the Art of Deception,”
please visit:
www.du-deceptions.com

Enlightened viewers,
thank you
for your presence today
on Healthy Living.
May humanity always
embrace only
what is good and beneficial
for our world.